The Days of Thomson

Summer Time Blues

2012-02-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Where's this?? It's Newport Beach,CA.... and it is calling my name.

We were thinking of doing a tour of the Southwest- NM, AZ, UT, NV etc etc and to visit my parents. Then my Dad told me that he and my Mom were taking off and spending the majority of the summer driving and touring the US. One of their first stops would be California. So I did what any other kid would do- I invited myself and my family to meet them in Cali. :D Now many of my siblings will be there too! If you are a friend and live close and feel you might want to meet up one night for a crazy IKEA trip or some food- (*coughPaulandMarissacough*) Let us know. We wil be in that area June 9/10-15th). ;)

The Snow

2012-02-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all came and went without any snow. It was sad- esp when I heard that New Mexico was covered in the stuff. I never thought that living in Boise, ID, I would be jealous of Silver City, NM for their snow. Well- mid to late January it finally came. We had an excellent storm that produced the best snow to build a snowman with. By that evening, it was melted. I then realized that that was all I needed and will be happy if we do not get anymore. I like it to be in the mountains so we have access to it. Once Christmas time is over- the snow should be too. ;) The kids had fun though!

She screamed bloody murder when I brought her inside. Kids don't care if they are frozen and their hands are about to fall off- It's SNOW!!

JoJo rolled this snow man all by himself!

Of course, hot chocolate and marshmallows were quickly consumed once the playing was finished.

JoJo's Festivities

2012-02-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

And behold, 7 years have passed and we did celebrate.

Here is the Lego Pinata we made. Joseph helped put it together. There are so many fun things in here- like JoJo sitting on his Birthday throne, the fruit lego blocks are the gifts people brought him for his birthday, the clown walking the plank (to the left), Preston and I on the merry-go-round with an umbrella (to the right), and Thurston helping a girl into the elevator to get away from the Dinosaur. I'm not sure if you can see it- but there is a block with Swiper from Dora the Explorer behind Joseph and he is trying to get all the presents. Seriously had a blast making this with him. He's got quite an imagination. Love it!

He didn't want a cake for his actual birthday- but requested Drumstick ice cream cones. I was more than happy to do that!

Brothers gotta hug...

he also provided the entertainment

Starscreem Kre-o.... to go with the Optimus Prime one, and yes, they are both in pieces and have joined the ranks of the rest of the Lego's.

He has been asking for a remote-control helicopter for so long! I'm not sure who likes it more- him or his Daddy. ;)

He chose the low-key sleepover with a Lego theme.

Lego Ninjago!

The boys got to make their own little pizzas- towards the end that ended up being me asking what they wanted on theirs. ;)

Everyone face cracks me up here

Aleah is our own little Scroccone (scrounger). If you leave it- she will eat it!

Notice this is a different color than the last one she had. ;)

Collecting the Loot

And you know that with a group of little boys- when singing the Happy Birthday Song- you will get a few "cha-cha-cha's" thrown in there.

Lego Pinata

2012-01-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

In the event you find you have a lot of Lego's/ Duplos and don't want to run to the store to get a pinata (or spend the time making a pinata the traditional way.... may I suggest this?? Super easy and the boys had fun. :)

Sweet Little Things

2012-01-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Any Man can watch Football, but this Daddy will watch football while he paints his little Princess's toe nails.

Watching these little guys coloring makes me happy.

New Year's Adventures

2012-01-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

We decided to stick around SLC and hang out with Nana for New Year's Eve. We had a quiet

evening, hung out in jammies and played Uno Spin in our Jammies. It was nice and cozie with the fire place going. This time it was a real one, and not the Netflix version. ;)

Kimball made an appearance for a bit.

Thurston won the game :)

Timmy Time kept Aleah preoccupied.

Poor Nana lost the game, but she was a good sport!

BTW, this is a super fun game :)

At the 0 countdown. the kids all had pots and pans to bang on. We let them bang and make noise to their hearts content- for one minute because that is about how long we could handle it! :)

We then enjoyed some bubbly on the balcony to watch the fireworks. The boys were impressed for about 20 seconds, and then ran back inside. The adults lasted about 45 seconds. ;)

Ralph

2012-01-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

2 Christmases ago, we received a call on Dec 23 from our brother in law letting us know that we might want to come down to SLC for Christmas, as they feared it might be Ralph's (Preston's father) last one. It took us 30 minute to decided, pack, load up the car and head out. We were there for the Thomson's Christmas Party. It was a fun Christmas, even though I blame the travel and extra treats on my super water retention ( remember I was super Prego with Aleah). A few days after Christmas, Ralph was officially diagnosed with Liver Disease and was given 6 months to live. After that, each visit, each phone call was cherished, and we tried to make it down as often as possible. Thanks to modern medicine and an amazing Dr., Those 6 months turned into 2 years. We saw Ralph on Thanksgiving, and bid him and Julie off to Hawaii with their daughters and families. Preston had the feeling it might be the last time he saw him.

So fast forward a few weeks, Preston calls me on my way home to tell me that they had given him less than 72 hours. He had been thinking about him and wanted to give him a call. He was just going into his coma state and put on morphine when Preston called, but was able to hear his Father say "Hey Pres, I love you". Those were his last words. :(

While this is extremely sad and hard to face, beauty and love came from it. Preston left the next day, his brother and sister in law who had been in Florida were able to fly in just in time. He was at home, they made his as comfortable as possible. He was surrounded by his loving wife, all of his children and most of his grandchildren. They sat around him, shared stories, memories, thoughts and songs that reminded them of him. While he was unconscious and unable to respond, there were bits where they felt that he knew they were there. He died shortly after midnight on December 23. Hence my post about an eventful Christmas.

Preston was able to make it home for Christmas, we had a wonderful time, but we all went to SLC on Tuesday. It is hard to describe how that week went. Bittersweet? Sad? Beautiful? Full of love. We spent the week helping here and there, preparing for the funeral etc. The night before was the viewing. It was supposed to be from 6-8. We arrived at 5:50 only to be greeted by a line out the door of people waiting to pay their last respects. The line did not die down the entire time and I think we got out of there around 9:30. We were able to spend some time as a family and all went out for dinner and Banana malts (Ralph's favorite). I got to know and grow closer to Preston's siblings, and our nieces and nephews.

The viewing at the funeral was the same. The funeral itself was absolutely beautiful, tearful and dare I say, sweet? So much love and so many wonderful memories and thoughts expressed by all. Preston of course was a pallbearer, and the boys were honorary pallbearers. The graveside service was short and sweet and Preston was able to participate in a Sigma Chi ceremony (one of the legacies from his father). It was hard to say good bye. We had been prepared for it, but it still sucks when it happens. It's starting to sink in and hit me just how much he will be missed. We do not regret those visits we had- even if they were 20 minutes on our way through town.

I was able to spend NYE with Julie and we sat and went through boxes of photos. They lived an amazing life and I told her that she couldn't die any time soon!! I told Preston that it was like the movie Big Fish. Ralph lived a full life, he saw the world over and over again- we've all heard the stories he had to tell, and at the funeral, you would see groups of people sharing those memories in their eyes. It was beautiful, and a beautiful reminder of what life is all about- how you treat others, how you make them feel. Live a full life the best you can, and share that journey with those around you. Let your memory be good to those who are left behind.

HERE is a copy of his Obituary. I dare you to read it and not say "wow, that man lived!" And now he lives on in our hearts and memories. We love you, Ralph! Miss you so much. I thank you for these last 10 years as your Daughter in Law. You always made me feel loved, welcomed and special. Love you!!

I absolutely love this band, and this song is wonderful to listen to when going through this. At least it was for Preston and I. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KCg_QEHtkY

Ralph and baby Thurston

Ralph, Preston and the boys. 3 generations of UTE fans. Utah Stadium 2007

Sledding with Grandpa and his awesome Russian hat. Christmas 2008

Family at the said 2007 game.

Ralph and our special date. I was honored to be his guest/ date at the National Advisory Council Dinner at the University of Utah. A super fun, eventful night that I will remember forever!! As an honor to his memory, I wore this same outfit. Each of us had on some kind of red to remember him by. Love you, Ralph!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

To say that this Christmas was eventful would be an understatement, but I will keep this post to just Christmas. Here is Drago helping us with the Christmas Tree

JoJo's turn to place the Star

As you can see, the kids like to cooperate when we take pictures

Christmas Eve Dinner!

The loot. We have to wait until the last moment otherwise the littlest Monkey gets into everything

Thurston and I

I love how happy Thurston is. They had smaller and thicker wine glasses at the $1 store, so I got some for the boys- they were way excited. ;)

Joseph took this. It is out of focus, but it was cute so I shared it.

Boys opening their PJ's

Ooh La! LA!

They decided to use the giant stocking and had a sack race.

..... Aleah tried to join them ;)

Oooh yeeeeaahhh... my turn to be sexy! :D

But he has me beat.

Aleah came into the dining room with her jammies. She had managed not only to open a present, but the
exact one she was suppost to open that night. She got Strawberry Shortcake or in her words "Sho-cake". She still had to wear the fairy dress though.

After dinner and gifts, we headed upstairs where we blew up the air mattress and snuggled in to watch A Christmas Story eating our berry pie and hot chocolate. A new tradition that is AWESOME! :)

Kre-O Prime! Hasboro legos that make and transform the Transformers= killing to birds with one stone. :)

The new Red Bike

Aleah and her Kitchen

Tea time is her favorite past time. Esp in the tubby. We could have given her only this and she would have been just fine. :)

The aftermath- yikes

Had to share our 'fire place' via Netflix- even played us some might fine Christmas tunes. Excellent.

Our Christmas as home was in the middle of a crazy time, but we took the day to relax and enjoy one another. We are grateful for that.

Puppy Love

2011-12-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Aleah started acting like a puppy. Cracked us up.

Christmas Blog

2011-12-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

For all who have not seen, our Christmas happy wishes to all is now located on this blog:

http://itsathomsonchristmas.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Mini Me

2011-11-02T08:56:00.000-06:00

There is a famous picture of me sitting on a piano bench in a blue dress. Legend says that I took the picture, then ripped the pigtails out and ran to play. The said picture is below to the left. I apologize for the size, its the only copy I have.

Here is Aleah, sitting on a bench in not a blue dress, but a brown crushed velvet track suit. She, like me, posed and then proceeded to rip the pig tails out and went to play. I still have a little time because technically I was a little older than 2, and Aleah is just under. I need to make a blue dress....:)

Thankful Tree

2011-11-02T08:48:00.000-06:00

Like everyone as of late, I totally stole this idea from Pinterest, and hey- that's what that site is for, right? I deconstructed my haunted tree and made it look less creepy, then I cut out all these cute little papers and we all sat down and wrote what we were thankful for. It is in our front room on display so we can see it every morning and remember what we are thankful for.

The boys had fun 'decorating' the tree.

Of course, Drago was there, Something about the way he is posing just makes me think this is the cutest thing ever. He's so funny.

Thankful fingers

And NO I am not pregnant, I am just wearing a baby doll shirt and I didn't realize it had poofed out as much as it did.

Had to throw one more in the mix

Our Happy Thanksgiving Tree! Yes, I see her too... creepy, eh?

Halloween

2011-11-01T22:37:00.000-06:00

We waited for until the last minute to carve pumpkins this year (like, finished an hour before!) :)

Rachael was over so she got to help out

We let them draw whatever and then we cut it out- pretty silly pumpkins this year, and JoJo the blooming artist drew all over the pumpkin- mummies, vampires etc.

I did some Zombie make up for a couple of girls. They liked it, but after seeing what Julie did to her kid- seems kinda lame- but she liked it. :)

Aleah has been obsessed with Pumpkins lately (or should I say Pumpies) ;) I found this costume from when Joseph was this age. She was soo excited, she kept saying "Pumpies! Pumpies!!"

Thurston as Drago from Bakugan

JoJo as Dan from Bakugan. I love the animation.

Drago is Dan's bakugan and the bakugan sits on his shoulder- this was their *attempt* to recreate that. haha.

The Boys and their buddies after Trick or Treating

My little Pumpies with all the other pumpies

Adults Turn

2011-10-29T20:30:00.000-06:00

We had the pleasure of hosting a Halloween Party for us adults. If you haven't figured it out by now, I LOVE hosting parties. Planning the menu, decorations, place settings, etc, I thrive off of it. Once the party starts I have fun, but then it ends and all my hard work is over, I get a little sad. That is why I take pictures to remember it. :) I had a lot of help from my friend Ashley, Preston made the main course and everyone pitched in with the food- so it wasn't nearly as stress full this time around. Ashley even came by today to help clean up. Hooray!

Here is the main 'dining room'

Dessert Table

" Lounging area"

Appetizers. Ashley made those little puppies- picture an oreo cake ball meets truffle. I'm not sure how many I ate....

Beverage cart

I loved the lights

We had our kids and a couple others, so we bribed them with their own party upstairs. :) I set up the carnival games from the week before, popcorn spiked with candy corn, goodie bags with treats and cheap toys... movies. They were super good and played really well together.

So this is Ashley. Around this time of year I get to use what I went to school for- Theatrical make up. She went as the Corpse Bride. The pictures don't do it justice- it totally rocked. I loved this picture and had to highlight how awesome she looked.

Here's a better picture of her and her husband Kelly- who I personally believe is the love child of our friend Travis and Dave K. Seriously. But you can't tell in this picture too well. :)

Here is like the only shot of me of the night. I had so much fun making the finger waves in my hair and
doing the pin curls. I really wanted a candy cigarette... boo. If you look to the right you can see Preston. He was going to be my partner in crime, but couldn't/ didn't want to spend money on the right suit. So Preston did what he always does and put on his robe, but kept the giant cigar and fedora hat. He rocked it. I will give whom ever guesses what the guy to my left went as 500 points. ;) I think he won the costume contest. I will give you 2 hints: SNL and Justin Timberlake.

5th Annual Thomson Halloween Carnival!!

2011-10-22T16:10:00.000-06:00

Its that time of year again.... my favorite Holiday (Halloween). We did our carnival party again and it just keeps getting better each year. We had a huge turn out, lots of yummy food, amazing chile and the best weather!!

Here is Aleah awaiting the guests (Pebbles)

Monster Can Toss

Ring Toss

Spider's Lair (stick hand in spiders mouth to get a prize)

Plink-o!! Well- "land your spaceship"... if you got in the middle (Area 51) you got the uber prize

Face Painting

Balloon Pop ( pop a balloon to get a treat). We only had dull darts, so our neighbor let us use an arrow. It was fun watching the kids try to throw it. :)

This was later filled with yummy food....

Cookie Decorating table

Pretty much the best picture ever ;)

Pebbles and Bam Bam!!

Elloitt sneaking in a kiss..........

Barney...

This is one BAD Unicorn.... ;D Yes, that was what she really was- a bad unicorn. I love kids!

Hey you kids! Get off my lawn! Lame, I know. ;)

Oh yeah- it's the Flintstones!

Flintstones and the Rubbles... and Pebbles and Bam Bam - kissing?! Hahaha!! :)

After shock. I love how all the kids chairs are overturned.

Crafts are cool

We seriously had so much fun. We love hosting this every year, and love how our neighbors and friends get involved and help out. Seriously! Thanks for stopping by.

And that was September

2011-10-02T22:47:00.000-06:00

So this month went by and was extremely busy. For some reason I thought that having the kids back in school would give me more free time, yeah, not so much. At least, that is what it feels like! Lots of stuff to fill our time with this month. We lost a dear sweet Aunt this month that was unexpected. :( We will miss you Aunt Susan!

These pictures are out of order because they loaded that way and I'm too lazy to reorganize them! :)

Here is a picture JoJo drew at school, cute, it is his Principle at school, but the best part is if you look on the bottom left in the brown, you can make out a dinosaur. This is a dinosaur bone deep in the ground that a Paleontologist will dig up :)

Thurston got a Chrysalis for a party favor and got to watch it 'hatch' into a butterfly! We let it go in the back, but first put some sugar water on a flower for it to drink. He was sad when it flew away, but is very glad we got some pictures. :)

Aleah playing with play dough on the floor in her boots. :)

Thurston's birthday was on the 31st- he had a sleep over with some friends, and on his actual birthday we went to Wahooz as a family. This is his Red Castle Crasher cake.

I had to include the picture of Aleah's destruction. While we were opening presents, she had her tasting of the cake. I took the picture and she went in for seconds. :)

The kids always love to bring us breakfast in bed for Mother's Day/ Father's Day and ask us when they will get breakfast in bed, so we surprised Thurston on his birthday. Loved it!! He's a wee bit sleepy here.

We had our 9th Anniversary last week, Preston had to leave for the funeral that afternoon so we snuck out for lunch before he left. He is leaving again tomorrow for work in SLC for a few days (which will be during his birthday as well!) Never fear, we have a wonderful Weekend escape to Park City this coming weekend and it will just be us 2, and we are SO EXCITED!!

Gross!

2011-09-16T10:37:00.000-06:00

The Praying Mantis, such a fascinating creature. I love watching it move its head around and attack bugs and wasps. They love our back porch- esp since we put the Gazebo up. They have become our little friends and I have appreciated them eating the excess bugs.

That is, until I learned that they engage in sexual cannibalism. I learned this by watching it happen. The female will bite the head off of the male, then proceed to devour the rest of him. I was so grossed out and fascinated that I couldn't stop watching. I was impressed that she could finish him off. So I thought I would snap a photo to share- aren't you excited? Here she is with just the bottom bulb part left:

Part way through taking the pictures, she stopped eating and turned her little head and stared at me.
*shutter*
Isn't it Freaky?!??! Aren't you glad I am sharing this with you?

Back To School...WOot WoOt!

2011-08-29T16:38:00.000-06:00

Here is JoJo on his first day of 1st Grade:

I seriously am in love with this picture (and with the little guys in it!) Seriously, when did they get to be the same size?!

This guy had an adventurous first day of Kindergarten! Well- it was all good until I arrived at the school to pick him up, that is. I get there and the teacher tells me that there was a mistake and that they put Thurston on the bus. Its not a huge deal- just annoying until you think about what it means. We did not go over any of this info with Thurston- and since he is in a different elementary school than our neighborhood, he gets off at another elementary school and switches buses. The teacher calls the bus hub and they say that they are holding him at the other Elementary school and to hurry over there. (Have you ever tried to 'hurry' in a school zone in pick-up-your-child time of the day?!) So I get to the other school and rush into the office to find it empty. They say that he is still on the bus. So I run out to see the buses pulling out and I flag down 2 of them with no luck. So I go back into the office to see what to do and which bus he is on. After about 10 minutes they figure out which bus he is on and say they will drop him off at the stop by our house. (Thank heavens for bus communication- eh?). So I TRY to hurry home in the school zones and traffic and the stupid train tracks- waiting for the train to pass. I see the bus ahead, so I'm like "oh phew!"

The crap hits in full force when I see all the kids get off and do not see Thurston. I flagged down 2 other Moms to verify it was the same bus and it was. One veteran Mom said that this happened to her kids before and to call the bus hub. So I go home to find the #. 10 minutes later they get a hold of the bus driver and he says that he has an empty bus- they are all empty now and returning to the High School to pick up those kids. uuuhh.. *PANIC* He said that he got off at another bus stop a few blocks over and he should be walking to our house. Yeah, my 4 yr old doesn't know that area very well. Its obvious to say that I am worried, angry and crying as I talk to Preston. I drive around and around and around the neighborhood for the next hour on and off the phone with Preston and the bus hub and the police to try and find my baby!

FINALLY- they get ahold of Preston (after he repeatedly called them) to say that they found him. He fell asleep curled up in the back of the bus so no one saw him. Luckily he had another route with the High Schoolers so they found him. I'm pretty sure I NEVER want to have that feeling again. I just kept picturing him crying and lost- and much worse. I'm glad he was asleep- because he wasn't worried or scared, so when I gave him a giant hug and wouldn't let him go he was all "what's up Mom!?" and didn't understand why he couldn't ride the bus anymore! Love this little bug!!!!

... so that is why Preston came home with flowers at the end of that day.

This picture pretty much sums up what its like to have boys.... :D

It's all About the Food....

2011-08-29T16:13:00.000-06:00

This post is dedicated to the special sweets in my life. Not my family- the other kind. I've been a busy girl doing what I love. I heart making yummy things, esp pretty yummy things that I can eat and share with friends.

Here is a chocolate cupcake with the strawberry Meringue butter cream frosting, garnished with fresh mint and strawberry.

...and yes- super yummy. I proudly grew that mint!

Next up? My version of a peanut butter cup! The bowls are made out of chocolate and the center is a peanut butter mousse that melts in your mouth.

I had fun making the little garnishes using melting chocolate and a piping bag.

Meet the Snookie Pop. A friend of mine loves Jersey Shore and had her bday party theme based off of that. This was a crazy feat. I learned that you CANNOT add food coloring to melted chocolate- the moisture makes the chocolate seize up and the color does not blend. Blah. Boo. I really wanted orange frosting! Butterscotch chips worked out quite well though.

This is the product of my failed attempt. The red was supposed to be the mouth and the orange were to be boobs that matched the skin. Fail. Instead, I somehow created a snookie creature. It's kinda cute in a fascinating and terrifying way. Still tasted good though,,,

For Thurston's birthday sleepover I made him red Castle Crashers cake pops. This time I used red melting chocolate from the cake decorating aisle. It worked out much better!! See the pretty flowers? Preston got them for me. They were after a day Thurston went missing for a few hours... made me feel better- I will have to make an additional post about that one!!

How cute with their little swords!

I tried another meringue butter cream frosting recipe. It called for some butter.....

Ahhh- how cute are these little fellas? I made the bees out of yellow jelly beans that I striped with black frosting and the wings are almond slices. I added some butter rum candy flavoring to the frosting and it was absolutely DIVINE!!! Possibly my most favorite cupcake to date.

For a salty bit that is actually good for you- here is what I snacked on today:

I LOVE the Tostitos multi grain dippers+ black beans+ a titch of salsa and a small cubed cheese. If I had any sour cream I would have used it. Oooohhh...or a bit of avocado! Mmmm... for the record, I ate like 20 of these little buggers (they're small...)

Attempt at Water Skiing...

2011-08-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we went up to Donnelly, ID and spent our time in a cabin amongst friends. Being not pregnant this year, I attempted to water ski

....attempted.

The first take off, I underestimated the pull of the boat and did not have my skis on tight enough. So for your imagination, picture the boat taking off, and me being yanked out of my skis. It was fabulous. The next attempt I secured those puppies as tight as they would go, and held on for dear life.

The next moment was more of a tragedy than triumph. While I did hold on to the rope, and my feet were fit securely in the skis, my legs were not in the correct position. My legs were no match to the force of the boat and water coming at me, forcing me to do the splits. Thank heavens I've been doing Yoga, or it could have been worse. Do you know where all that water goes? I do....

There were no pictures taken, so I thought I would draw up a little something to give you an idea of what it may have looked like. Better luck next year, eh?

We Heart Water

2011-08-10T17:54:00.000-06:00

Just some pics of the kids enjoying the nice weather and our "fabulous" pool. (hey, they love it!)

Enjoying Meringues and ice tea on the patio (they love sweet and spicy) :)

Sorry, these pics are dark. Oh well.

We returned to Eagle Island with Daddy, had a blast. We tried the slide and found it to be fun.

Way back there, is Preston. :)

Uh, I think he needs a haircut

Silly Dork

Preston lovingly on clean up duty while I sit in the shade and watch him. ;)

This is why you drink first, then share with the kids. gak.

Its kind of a cute pic, but not quite. Notice my hand on hers trying to avoid being smeared with gook. But she's a sweetie who loves to give kisses.

Jo really wanted to take a picture, so here you go.

It's been such a fun summer. We have one more weekend planned (lets hope no one gets sick this time).

Stuffs

2011-08-07T20:41:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we planned a fun trip to Sun Valley to meet up with Preston's Brother and Parents. I had visions of fun pictures of us hiking in the beauty that is Sun Valley, visiting the chocolate shops, spending fun memories with the family. Unfortunately I guess spending the weekend on the toilet was more exciting. I didn't take pictures though. :/

So instead here is a random display of our fun times at home on other days. Aleah loves Strawberry Shortcake, and here is a picture of her playing with her SS toys while watching SS. :)

We met up with some friends and spent a day at Eagle Island. That place rocks, and I am sad that it has taken me 5 years to get there. We had a blast and we went again just this last Saturday (this time with Preston). Those pics will have to come later. Aleah loved the sandy beach and the kids had a blast swimming in the water.

While it is not the Ocean, this is just fine for an afternoon getaway in the Boise area.

.....aaannnd... that's not my kid. But JoJo is on the far left. :)

Aleah is so full of fun energy lately and I am just loving her personality. She can destroy a house in no time, but she does it in a really cute way.

She did not fall here, but it was really close.

Stinker!

Talking

2011-08-03T19:00:00.000-06:00

So I have a lot of things to post to catch up, but in the meantime, enjoy this little video I shot of Aleah this morning. She was talking a lot but of course quieted down once I got out the camera. Sorry about the Bakugan game noise in the background. :)

Randoms

2011-07-19T11:30:00.000-06:00

I recently discovered the lovely world of meringues. I will admit that when I was younger, the thought of whipped eggs frightened me and I refused to eat it. The Lemon pie always called to me, but that pesky meringue always got in the way. So when Grandpa R. would sneak into the pie room at Thanksgiving and eat all the meringue pie, I was eternally grateful. (Is that lemon meringue pie? That doesn't look like lemon meringue pie!)- that was for Mom and sisters ;)

BUT... when I made that amazing frosting the other day I tasted it when it was just the sugar and egg whites and was ever so delighted by what I found. I decided to make meringue cookies, and everyone told me how they were very difficult to make. Maybe I'm just awesome, or it was beginners luck- or perhaps its my super awesome mixer with a timer that did it- but I made them and they were a huge success. Brittle at first bite, melty and chewy and oh so delicious. They aren't that bad for you comparably- gluten free and I loaded these puppies up with cocoa powder and crushed dark chocolate. The kids LOVED them!

I walked in on Aleah shaking her crib. It's old and falling apart and she had shaken it so much that it was starting to lean. So needless to say we said adios to that crib and got out the toddler bed. She has been really good about it! It helps that she can't open the door, and we always find her passed out next to her toys and such. So naturally, she needed a new cozy. Here's what I came up with:

I wish I had taken a closer picture- the tree branch is painted on with fabric paint and then there are cherry blossoms and leaves. It's cuter in real life- promise. The blossoms are white fleece and I sewed them on with red embroidery thread. There are a couple green fleece leaves as well. She loves it:

Another random, she FINALLY likes to swing

When we were at Legoland, the caricaturists did pictures of the people as legos. I'm cheap and didn't want to pay the $$, and so I gave it a try. The kids love em!
JoJo Ninjago!

Thurston as a Castle Crasher Lego holding his Ninja Cat (that's a whole other story!!) :)

There is one of Aleah and a friends son. I will post those later when I upload them.

4th of July festivities

2011-07-07T15:24:00.000-06:00

It wouldn't be a celebration with out some form of cake, right? I found THIS recipe and had to try it. I just made a french vanilla cake mix (spiked it with raspberry extract) though.

I will tell you that it took a lot longer than your typical frosting, but it was totally worth it!! Preston, the dude who scrapes off frosting, when gave him a small sample on a cupcake, requested more. NOTE: If you ever do this, make sure you follow the recipe and times exactly or it will not set up.
I refrigerated the (2) that were left over from the night before and they were even yummier the next day. The icing was harder and cold, but melted in your mouth. Oh my, just typing this I might need to make somemore!! The cute little strawberries are the little nubbins left over after I made some jam (from my garden) :)

The snack spread. The steak and chicken are absent at this point, but we were kept busy. :)

And yes, those ARE patriotic jello jiggler stars....

Our pool is a little less cooler than the Thomson cousins real pool we were at 2 days prior, but it got the job done.

Happy baby girl!

I told him to act sexy

We did our little fireworks in the cul de sac, nothing too fancy. We didn't want to set anything on fire so we set the bottle rockets off upside down in a jug of water. It was entertaining. Last year we had sand castles and jell-o molds to blow up, we missed those this year.

Be grateful. I think this is the one time all of their shorts were ABOVE their cracks. Usually there was a whole roll of white pookies staring right back at cha.

Zach training for Baywatch

It was fun and low key with lots of yummy food and good friends. That's what it is all about.

Pretty Little Flowers

2011-07-07T14:54:00.000-06:00

This year was wet and cooler than most. It almost felt like March weather finally appeared by the end of May. At the time I was kinda annoyed, but I have to say that because of that weather, we grew an amazing amount of lettuce, strawberries AND this year my wild flowers finally took. I'm in love. I feel I need to give some credit to my awesome boots. They have made working in the garden fun, and at a steal of $6 on clearance at Target- you can't beat it!

See? I just love Poppy's

Redneck Party

2011-06-27T22:20:00.000-06:00

Again, if you're on facebook, you've seen these, but just enjoy anyway :).
Let's begin a journey, a magical journey of a Redneck party...
Here is the glorious cake. It was oh, so fun to make :)

The ground is made of a mixture of regular and chocolate graham crackers and oreos.

The tires on the roof help keep the tin from rattle in the wind...

We made sure that the car was bigger than the house. If you look closely, you can spot the doggie poo ( rolled up tootsie rolls).

Toilet Bowl planter

Dip in the pool, is nice and cool...

Of course, we needed to feel the part...

BBQ Fountain! We had the little smokies and there was also chicken nuggets

Billy Boy preparing the cheese fountain

Good 'ol Rich

This is the happy birthday couple (whom I might add just this last week got engaged!) We made them a Redmantic Picnic. The blanket is 9 confederate flag bandanas pieced together with flaming duck tape (on the other side). The basket boasted of Chicken in a biscuit crackers, American easy cheese, slim jims, twinkies and PBR.

I so love this picture of Kim. I love her duck taped denim sleeves, and Aleah looks cute, just being there :)

YES!!

This is why you do not put ideas into Preston's head. He will take them and throw them back at you with a power you cannot fight...

The Filipiaks

The Mosers (she came from work)

All us pretty people

I tried to let my hair down. Tried...

Needless to say, it was a BLAST. Love it!

Legoland!!

2011-06-26T23:09:00.000-06:00

* I apologize to those who have already seen these on facebook. I have friends and family who are on facebook and don't read this, and vice versa. Then there are my parents who seem to not look at either one...

The best way to welcome the little ones? A giant sand sculpture of StarWars!!

Aleah's favorite part (Dino Dig)

Musical fountain (you jump on the yellow pads to make the instruments play)

Lego Boats!!

Sometimes the lines were long, but these guys held up pretty well

This picture cracked me up. Don't worry, she is not falling, she just didn't want to get down. :)

Lego boat tour of mini land

Seriously cracks me up.

When my kids grow up, I want them to know that building amazing things like this out of legos for a living is an option.

Bionicles!!! Luckily there was a blue and red Toa ( I don't know their names, but the boys do).

The Technic was actually a really fun ride that the parents enjoyed too. After riding this, the boys went crazy and want to ride every roller coaster they see. We reached a milestone this year though- JoJo was tall enough to ride all of the rides by himself!!

This ride was fun, not too crazy, but it "tickled their heart" as they discribed it.

Tuesday night we met up with Paul and Marissa and went out for some delicious Tepanyaki at Fuji's. The kids were entertained and thought it was the coolest thing every. Poor Keenan was very concerned about the onion fire volcano. It was so good to see them and we very much enjoyed their company. We were able to meet up with them a couple nights later at IKEA, where my children decided to have a melt down, but the meatballs were excellent. :)

The Lego Starwars exhibit was amazing. I'm not that into Star Wars, but it made me excited!

The marching band in the front actuall marched around and played. I love lego people.

Evil Thurston

The force is strong with Joseph...?

The Sealife Aquarium next door was fun. Aleah love love loved the fishies.

We were 'frightened' at the sharks swimming over our heads

It took way too many shots to get all these guys, they swam too fast!

Seeing this, I think of Feeding Frenzy on X Box... I need to eat all these little guys to level up...:)

Look closely toward the bottom right for the sea horse,

It was a little chilly, but we still made it to the water park. I hung out with Aleah in the Duplo area for the majority of the time. Luckily, the water was heated, so it was all good. :)

I love these little turds of mine.

At this stage in our families life, we thought that Legoland was awesome!! And thank you Hilton timeshare people for the $100 gift card so we could buy our little guys cool toys there :)

This is a pic of JoJo talking to the little kid in line about how cool the ride was

Dancing again

In the end, we all wanted this:

But it was so much fun!!! We stopped in Primm, NV on a whim at the Outlet mall... that was my Legoland :).
We ended up stopping at IKEA in SLC as well (since SD didn't have the table I needed) and the kids got to play in the playplace there. (they love IKEA for that reason). We finally made it home and have been back to real life. I finally got all caught up on laundry, and this morning when I was looking for a certain pair of shoes, realized that there was a garment bag in Preston's car that he flew home with him on the first weekend. See, Laundry really IS never ending.....

More...

2011-06-26T22:08:00.000-06:00

Aleah celebrating Katelyn's Graduation...

View of the Oquirrh Mountains on our hike behind Nana's house

Seriously beautiful!!

Hiking with Nana

We stopped Here while in St. George. It's a must for future paleontologists. Pretty cool if you ask me.

These are Dinosaur imprints found on a construction site that were preserved

We pretty much landed in San Diego, checked into the hotel and headed straight to the beach

This girl was in heaven!

I love this so much, and I think this picture has inspired the colors of my bathroom (future project)

My kids now love the Ocean (they were scared before they went). There something humbling and beautiful about standing on the shoreline and letting the waves crash around you. I could stand there all day.

Happy Father's Day to This Guy:

2011-06-19T15:59:00.000-06:00

We Love him. He's kind of a celebrity around here....

You do so much for us, and we can't thank you enough for all you do for us, and expressing just how much we love you might be impossible. We Love you baby! (Daddy) :)

Vaca Pt1

2011-06-15T21:58:00.000-06:00

The first part of our trip was of course for Les Miserables, but we also stopped by the Clark Planetarium at the Gateway. The kids had a blast, and we saw the short movie Born to Be Wild. It was soo adorable and the kids loved it and it was quite heart warming. I totally recommend seeing it if you can.
Les Mis did not disappoint and Preston actually really enjoyed it. It was nice to get out just us and enjoy a good show and a slice of pie. And yes, it really was a slice of pie- triple berry Alla mode. :)
The kids had fun in the Mars and Moon section

I love how it looks like Thurston is floating

Seriously, look at the pose on this kid. he's wears those holy jeans like a pro. I would buy them! :)

Yes, you still get wedgies on Mars....

Preston showing the kids the world...

Seriously think she is the cutest thing ever...

Here's us right before the show. Awwwe....

Yes, I was trying to be an idiot, but the kiss was still good. :)

Fun with Oil Pastels

2011-06-15T20:55:00.000-06:00

For a very very long time, I have had some oil pastels lying around, and they always seem to accompany any art set I purchase. So the other day, I pulled them out when I did a Dinosaur VS and fell in love. I don't know why it took me so long to play with them, they are pretty much crayons for adults.
So when my sister Julie approached me and asked if I would do some character sketchings for her book, I... (ok, after several failed attempts at other mediums) I decided to try the pastels. I have to say that I really liked them. I think Julie does as well (hopefully!)
The only downside is they cannot be fixed or sealed. I haven't tried a spray varnish, but I really don't think it would work out too well.
Here are my 3 top favorites: If you know Pam Sjostrom, you will appreciate this:

Danny Devito and Kevin, from the office was this inspiration:

This one is my favorite. If you've watched the Cannon Ball Run movies, then you might recognize who his is patterned after.

Kindergarten Graduation

2011-05-25T22:48:00.000-06:00

Joseph's graduation was today. I will admit that I teared up! They were so cute!! The music teacher had prepared 3 songs (with actions) that they performed. Preston did most of the camera work on his Droid, so I will need to get that from him sometime. My camera work wasn't the best because I was a little preoccupied chasing the 15 month old that should have been napping- around! (seriously she's crazy! ) :)

Here are a couple pics I was able to get:

Yep, that's my kid picking his nose....

in line to get his diploma

They had a little reception/ party in the classroom afterwards. The best was when they went outside and had a pinata! His teacher prepared a slide show with pictures she took throughout the year. It was sweet when she teared up after when she was thanking us for letting her teach our children. Ahhh. So he has one day left on Friday (that is 2 hours long...) where he gets to go and get his yearbook signed. I will take that 2 hours, because I need that time to pack! I will pick him up and head straight out of town.

That is... after I drop this guy off at the hospital. He decided to rupture his ACL, and now can't be left alone. It works out great, because he has 12 weeks of rehab ahead of him and the first 2 weeks is the worst- so woohoo the vet will handle this!

I'm a *little* sad at what it cost us because I was going to finally get rid of the nasty carpet in the master bath, but looks like that will have to wait. I've gotten some comments along the lines that we should have just put him down. This makes me a little angry. If you've ever loved your animal- would you seriously kill it because it hurt its knee, and was perfectly healthy otherwise? Maybe you would, but not me. As much as he annoys us, we love the little turd beast.

Maybe I'm evil, but I was really hoping he would get a cast. I wanted to see him try to walk with one. :) But I will take the shaved leg, leaving the furry foot that looks like a giant sock.

Anything I can do, you can do better....

2011-05-25T21:22:00.000-06:00

We've all seen those mommy blogs where they show you their awesome, perfectly made craft. Yeah, this is my version.

I have been sewing a lot lately, and even though these pictures will say otherwise- I HAVE improved.

So I like to bite off more than I can chew sometimes and go into things without thinking. We are taking our trip this Friday and I thought it would be fun to make neck pillows for the kiddos. They chose animal ones.....

So here is Joseph's, it's a dragon-lizard-dinosaur thing. It turned out OK:

So here is Thurston's, It's not that bad really, the shape is good, the colors are great and the face is cute...

until you look closer and wonder if it had a stroke???

This angle is cute? I think I messed up on the angling? But he's still cute right?

Here's Aleah's. Yeah, I don't know either. Somehow it didn't quite make it into the horseshoe shape.

But look how cute the face is!?

Too bad I sewed it upside down. Those things? Yeah they are supposed to be the feet that it is resting its precious head on.

Well, it's not that bad, right?

In the end, they all love them, and they are comfortable and 'personalized'. Maybe I should stick to making cakes....

Why do they have to keep growing up?

2011-05-20T23:14:00.000-06:00

So this week (and next I assume) has been a sweet emotional time. I went through this last year when Joseph had his last day of Preschool, and today I was the same with Thurston's. He was so excited to go to school today he ran out of the car and when I offered to walk him to class his response was "No! I'm going to go myself!" And off he ran. They had their field trip and walked the green belt and had a snack along Indian Creek. He said he had so much fun! Tonight was his preschool graduation. I was torn because it was also Joseph's dual language family night. So Preston and I split up and he took TD and I went with JoJo. Luckily we were able to make both and I was there just in time to see Thurston get his "diploma". This is his picture. It's so cute I think I might cry!

And here is his Preschool picture. He told me the day he got them taken that he was sad he didn't get to sit on the bike. Now I know why! :)

It was cute seeing him interact with all of his friends. (and girlfriends...). He is Soooo excited to be in Kindergarten!
So now, here is my other Monkey! He is in his last week of T-Ball and has loved it. He really wants to be in real baseball NOW. It is obvious when he slides into home to avoid the being tagged out. Seriously so funny. He's quite a good hitter too. :) I love these little guys so much, and am holding on to the days that they still want me around (and let me snuggle with them).

And here is the little Principessa... in her chair (that I recovered for her) enjoying Pingu (her absolute favorite)!

....Pingu again. This time she decided to unload and get in the basket. I love her!

Two Weeks!!!

2011-05-13T12:56:00.000-06:00

What happens in 2 weeks? Just about, not everything, but a lot of stuff. ...
It is Joseph's last day of school (Thurston gets out a week earlier), and we are picking him up from school and heading out of town for the next 17 days (or so).
The first few days we will be in SLC checking out the Clarke Planetarium, and then I finally get to make good on my Birthday gift- Les Miserables!! I had a dream the other night that it ended up being a High School production and they weren't even in costume. I was so angry that I paid that much for tickets and it was a bunch of kids trying to do my favorite musical. Fun times.

   Preston will be flying home as I play single Mom for the week (while he may or may not have a week long guys night with his friends...). BUT I do get to spend a couple days with my Mom AND Katelyn is graduating. I'm freaking out, so I can't imagine what Julie is doing. They are going to take off to Moab and will be hiking for a couple days. I will be heading back to the Avenues to play in a pool. ( I don't do camping/ hikes anymore...) :)
    I know ya'll are so excited to be reading my itinerary, but stay with me- because the next Friday, Pres flies back to SLC and the we head to St George to check out a Dinosaur Museum for the boys. But that's just a small stop on our way to San Diego!! WOOHOO!!
   The boys keep talking about Legoland. I've heard many peoples opinions on how they loved it or hated it. Seeing as I have no desire to ride the rides, and my boys LOVE Legos- I think it will be a big hit for our family. Plus we got the 5 day pass for the price of one that includes the water park and aquarium, so we can come and go as we please and not feel like we have to stay all day. We are so excited to get out and play and be near the Ocean again (first time for kids).
I would like to say that I will get a great tan, but we all know I freckle, burn, peal and remain pasty white- so sorry to disappoint.
I'm super excited to finally get to see some long lost friends, I hope they are as excited to see us as we are them. :)

It's been like 7 years, pre kids and all. This was them Dancing at my 24th birthday party....

So yeah, I'm pretty stoked.

And for those who care, the Badger that was in my garden yesterday has not returned and my cat survived. For being such a fierce big hairy thing, he was kinda cute (only because I was looking at him from my second story window!!)

Toothless

2011-05-10T23:13:00.000-06:00

The day has finally come, Joseph lost his first tooth. I think he was getting a little antsy about the whole thing. All of his friends were loosing theirs, but he still hadn't. We can thank his nervous habit of biting his shirt for it. I guess the little guy was gnawing on his shirt button and bit down wrong and snapped some roots. Poor tooth didn't stand a chance with Mama's ninja fingers. I had that tooth yanked out in less than 3 seconds. He was super excited. And would you look at the fro' on that kid?! I think he is auditioning for the role of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But for reals, its usually not that bad, let face it- if we aren't going anywhere that day, the kids hair (nor mine as well) gets brushed.

My friend Tricia made this cute tooth monster pillow. The mouth is a pocket, and makes it convenient for the tooth fairy to do the necessary exchange. :)

Joseph wrote a note (and drew a pic) for the tooth fairy, and as usual, I have not taken a photo and I write an empty promise to one day include the said picture. One day you will log on to see all those empty promises made right, but until that day, you're gonna have to deal with it.
So, the tooth fairy wrote him back, and it turns out ours is a dude. He goes by the name of Al Dente :) and is looking forward to doing further business with us. He is the Thomson's official tooth fairy. I'm already looking forward to yanking another tooth out. MMmuuuaaahahhaaa....

Paintings for a Mother's Day Bieber Party...? Anyone?

2011-05-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

First, I must say that I was spoiled greatly this Mother's Day! Preston surprised me on Friday when he came home from work with all this! He was holding the roses, JoJo was holding the daisy bouquet, Thurston the white roses, and Aleah had the bag of chocolates (and was running away with them). :) Thank you Albertson's for providing decent priced and beautiful flowers! And esp thank you Dear amazing Hubby for getting them for me! :)

For actual Mother's Day, I was allowed to sleep until 10am!!!! I KNOW!!! :D

Then I got bored and started reading while they were getting things ready. They all came in at 10:30 bearing homemade gifts and cards and cinnamon toast and juice/ milk. First the giant card, then I opened Thurston's gift. The wrapping paper was construction paper with cats walking on a rainbow trying to get to the pot of gold. He made me a butterfly out of a painted doily and a clothes pin. :)

JoJo had written Te Quiero Mama! and his was the cutest picture of him they took at school. He was wearing a hat and a large dress coat and the pic was in black and white. He constructed the frame out of large Popsicle sticks painted to look like caterpillars.

I remember my Mom has a part of her wall in her bedroom that has all the crafts we made as kids for Mother's Day. To this day, they are still there. I feel so special to have items to display of my own now. I will admit that I teared up looking at them today. I should have taken a picture of all of them. I prob will later!

We then got ready and Preston took us to a special Mother's Day brunch at the Ono Hawaiian Cafe. It was sooo yummy!! The coconut french toast, the special made to order omelet, the braised beef, Kahlua Pig, coconut fruit bowls, eclairs, mini cheese cakes, salmon... seriously I haven't had to eat for the rest of the day!! I am so blessed with the best children in my life! Each one is so crazy special to me (esp the crazy part). It's so easy for people to see why it would be hard to raise children, but its not so easy to put into words just how amazing it is to be a Mom. It's worth all the crap and crazy times and fits, because at the end of the day when you are snuggled reading a bedtime story and they snuggle back and say " I love you Mommy!" it all was worth it!

Now for the Bieber.

So if you were walking along in the clearance section of Walmart, and you saw that there were Justin Bieber party supplies on sale for 25 cents, could you- would you pass up that deal? Yeah, me neither!

We celebrated my belated birthday yesterday:

The awesome cake Kim and Bill made for me:

Loot bags! Left over Easter candy, play dough and demotivational candy grahams*. (this is what I used to leave on peoples desk/ computers at work for fun. Instead of the 'lifesaver' candy grahams, mine were with Riesens... IE You are the Riesen Darwin could be right/ babies cry/ we check under the bed at night etc...) They're great fun if you have a group that welcomes insults. :)

Pulled out the wig. We were going to play pin the hair on the Bieber, but ended up not. But Preston looks fabulous. BTW, if anyone wants a Justin Bieber poster, let me know. ;)

The cake. Don't know what's going on with the elf ears though!

Nothing wrong with a room full of nerds. I love all the faces here...

You are what you eat, and I love me a lot of cheese...

We finished the night by dancing our hearts out (a couple of us anyway) to Dance Central on the Kinect.

So now for the painting. I painting this for my friend Tricia. Travis was a little sad that I painted over the existing painting, but I think he liked the result. I don't know if you've noticed, but I am a little obsessed with Orchids. They're my fave.

Horray for Thurston!

2011-05-02T15:21:00.000-06:00

Hooray for our little Thursty! He got into the Spanish immersion program! Now he and Joseph can speak Spanish together. I have to admit that I am waaay excited to have both the boys in school all day next school year. I love them dearly, but you know what I mean!

He and his special 'friend' Rachael will be in the class together. :)

Pojo's

2011-04-19T14:27:00.000-06:00

This weekend was set aside for Thurston and I to have a fun day together. I got a little sick, but was feeling well enough to take him out as promised. We went to his favorite place (Pojo's), and I took him to Red Robin for dinner. It was a blast, and I love my little Thursty bug! I love being able to spend one on one time with the kids, I means so much to them and to us.

Tigroneous Prime

2011-04-18T20:21:00.000-06:00

Saturday Preston opened up the irrigation box to turn on the sprinklers, and this little guy has made a little home in there. We think he's quite a cutie, and will keep the area clean of bugs and such. He's a spotted tiger Salamander. Luckily, he is not dangerous, but will bite, so we made sure to warn the kids.

We named him (ready for this?):

Tigroneouse Prime Comodo Dragon,

Tigory for short.

Yep, when you can't decide on a name, just go with all of them!

I think he's cute, esp the bug eyes.

This is why I am getting fatter!

2011-04-13T20:19:00.001-06:00

Since the beginning of my time, I have been horrible at Visiting Teaching.. Seriously, who really gets it done every month and is super excited about that? Well, I have to say it is not because I don't love my girls (that's for you Jana) ;) It's just- well whatever. So this month, since all the ladies birthdays were within a couple weeks of each other, we had brunch. And it was awesome. Here is the table ( I actually got to use our wedding china for once):

Fruit and beverages:

The amazingly delicious Trifle (gluten free) Isn't is pretty?!

I didn't get a picture of the quiche or the chicken salad croissants, but believe me, they were yummy. The silly thing about this is I took pics of the food, but not of the lovely ladies that were here. Sorry! :/ I guess the party was to fun to remember the camera.

So in other news, we had a couple of friends throw a b-day party (who are also engaged). This is their cake. If you have seen Eagle Vs Shark, then you know that this is awesome.

This one was all about the topper. Good thing, because I messed up on the actual cake, but who's gonna look at that when you've got these babies!

Ring around the Rosies, the cat claws will come...

2011-04-04T15:52:00.000-06:00

So imagine you are lying asleep at night, and you awaken with the overwhelming urge to cough. So you roll over and have a coughing fit, take a sip of water, check your cell to see what time it is. You notice the glowing eyes of the cat in the rocking chair staring at you, (you are used to this), so you roll over and snuggle into your hubby. Second later you hear a creek from the rocking chair and the next thing you know, your cat has jumped the 4+ feet and has landed on your head teeth barred and claws out. Holy Crap is right. I scream- naturally- waking Preston and scaring Jazz back into reality. I turn on the lamp and he is staring at me from the ground and I assure him that I am me and not a monster. He rolls on his back as a sign of 'oops- my bad'. I turn out the lights and lay back down. Jazz then jumps on my bed and purrs and snuggles into me. (he says he's sorry- I forgive him... but with slight hesitation that is.)

Another 10 or so minutes pass by and I am taken over with another coughing fit, but this time I sit up and before I can tell Jazz 'All is well'- he launches at me, sinking his teeth into my shoulder- claws deep into my chest and arm. Now, I love animals- I don't believe in hurting them, but in this case, I found it completely justified that I picked that fuzzball up and threw him across the room. (Don't worry- his cat like reflexes helped him land safely).

Preston graciously tossed him outside for the night while I cleaned my wounds. Poor cat was spooked, and a part of me was honored in knowing he was trying to protect me- but I'm pretty sure that he will not be sleeping in my room while I have a cold!

So in other news, here are the kids playing ring around the rosies. Aleah loved playing with the boys, and at one point she was saying "ashes" (or her version of it), but of course Mommy was too late to catch it on camera. :)

31 Flavas

2011-03-29T17:47:00.000-06:00

So Yesterday was my birthday. Hooray! I'm older! :) The festivities started the week prior when Preston and I took an evening out to eat at Tucano's and catch a movie. My gifts (as usual) were received prior to my birthday. One, I have already mentioned (Dance Central on the Kinect) which, by the way, I totally rock at now! How many people can say that they achieved a 5 star rating on Rump Shaker?? OK, probably anyone who gives it a shot, but it's worth the bragging rights. The other gift is 2 tickets to Les Miserables in SLC in May, which I am totally excited about. I have seen it twice before, but will gladly see it 100x more.

So yesterday I took the kids out to a nice lunch at Arby's (I know, so fancy!) and then to the

dollar store so they could pick out a present for me. Thurston chose a baton, and JoJo chose a recorder. Sadly, neither of these have survived past 3pm the next day, but it's the thought that counts- right?

I also splurged on a couple items myself (big spender) and one of the items included a silicon pastry brush. Below is Aleah hoarding all 3 of these items. I will say that she DID NOT LET GO of the pastry brush until this afternoon. She still picks it up when she sees it though. This included:

a nap

Dong Khanh Vietnamese diner

The Cheesecake Factory

BEDTIME

all around the house

all meals in between

and a second nap time.

She's so funny!

Here she is at breakfast this morning (with her pastry brush)

So we had an extra crib mattress after we gave away the car beds. I had this idea that I wasn't sure would work, but thought I would give it a try. I have to say, I out did myself with how cute it turned out. I purchased a sturdy 2'X4' board from Home Depot, along with 4 metal leg attachment kits and 4 little legs. I used some scrap fabric to make the pillows and put elastic on a larger scrap to make the cover stay. I LOVE IT!! The white pillow turned out my favorite. This is Aleah's reading 'couch'.

She LOVES it! (notice what is in her left hand....)

snuggling on her couch (with pastry brush)

This was taken after her nap. She did let go of the brush during her nap, because now it is in her right hand. HAHA!!! Did I mention she cracks me up?

So we have planned a family vacation that is not in SLC (shocker!) for once. We are headed to San Diego this June and are SO excited. With this, I realized that we will be on a public beach. Yikes. Preston and I both love each other more than words can say, and accept each other no matter what condition we are in. This being said, we both agree that we have put on a little extra padding in the last 9 years. Stretch marks can't be helped- they are battle marks, but the flab must be eliminated. My abs must be avenged! ;)
So of course, my neighbor brings these by as a thank you for watching her kids. They are so, so ,so amazingly delicious. I told myself that I could have one, only after doing 100 jumping jacks. Of course, the need for more came, so let's just say that I have done a lot of jumping jacks today. So for fun, you can now imagine a 31 year old housewife in spandex pants doing jumping jacks in the kitchen in front of a tub of goodies. That's how I roll... and why my stomach does too.

Here is a fun picture the night we got engaged. How young and naive we were...

Farewell to Rob

2011-03-23T15:39:00.001-06:00

We have a dear friend who is moving to San Jose this week to work for Apple. We will definitely miss him! So we had a farewell party for him, and naturally we needed a cake. So first a back story. Rob likes cats and one day the men were playing Halo and Jazz was playing close by in a paper sack. Rob thought it was hilarious, so of course we bring this up constantly. He's been a good sport. We first gave him a ceramic cat that resembled Jazz and put it in a lunch sack to keep with him at all times. So when I saw a cake similar to what I made below (cannot recall what website I saw it on), I HAD to make it for him. It turned out awesome and he's a good sport for letting us keep this a running joke for so long.

view from above

Rob enjoying his cake. Have to point out the paintings of Michigan Bill and Michigan Kim. Makes a Mama proud. :)

Not sure why we had him blow out candles since it wasn't his birthday. They say it was so he could make a good luck wish, but I'm pretty sure it was so Bill could use his blow torch. :)

Offering the cat his forearm. (long story) ;)

As a final gift, I took this picture of Jazz and framed it. Jazz signed the matte with his paw. Awesome. Rob said he would treasure it forever.

One more for the road. This was taken at my birthday party in 2009. Hahahahah!!!!

Have fun in San Jose Rob, we will definitely miss you!

Little Bit 'O this, and a little bit 'O that

2011-03-22T16:04:00.000-06:00

First, I would like to introduce these little guys below. They are in part happy birthday to Wendy, and part congratulatory to Wendy and ChiMing....awwwe:

I was going to make a tiered cake for them, but had a miserable failure, this was the result of trying to marbleize the cake, forgetting that one should NOT scrape the pan, because it will affect the non-stickiness of the baked cake.

So when life gives you a pile of failed cake crumbs, make cake pops... they are quite delicious! :)

Luckily, I remembered my mistake and was able to save the top tier, so here ya go. I also tried to cut some corners and use the already colored and flavored marshmallows. They kind of worked, but were a lot fluffier than normal marshmallow fondant. They had a lot more volume, hence the fluffy hearts.

Here is Aleah with TanTo, it was impossible to get a still picture of both of them

TanTo is wearing the shirt I made for him... haha!

Just so you know, Aleah is still adorable.

Joseph wanted me to take a picture of him in his new flip flops

....because they have robot sharks on them! (he's such a boy!)

Aleah on St. Patricks Day

She was not very happy that I was walking away from her. She was laughing right before, I swear!

JoJo the Snowboarder

2011-03-21T16:32:00.000-06:00

So I am a little behind here, I've been busy doing nothing and everything lately!

Preston took Joseph up the mountain a couple weeks ago for his first attempt at snowboarding. Joseph was reluctant at first, but apparently fell in love right away, and was quite the pro. By the end of (or middle) of the day he was doing jumps (nothing major, but enough to deserve major props)!

Here he is all decked out and posing right before they left:

I think it is safe to say I have a danger boy on my hands. :) Good thing Bogus basin is so cheap!

Grey is the new brown...

2011-03-04T16:44:00.002-07:00

So, is it Gray or Grey? I can never remember, but the spell check says both are good. :) But anyway, I have completed the art/ guest room! This was a fun one for me! I used to be all about the taupe and brown, but it's the greys that catch my eyes and heart now. The room is huge, but is shaped more gallery style, twice as long as it is wide (at least). So I got a bookcase from IKEA (woohoo!) to serve as a divider. I LOVE how it turned out.

Here is the desk where I sometimes sew, or the computer desk for the kids. It works great as a DVD player for the kids when they have sleep overs in there. :) Hooray for paint and fabric to recover the chair and lamp shade!

I LOVE these curtains. Thanks Target! :)

Just so you know, I totally made this bed. The platform is from our old click clack futon, the headboard is a regular board padded with some of the foam from the futon mattress and then covered with some pinstripe fabric. The mattress? Yeah, I crafted that as well. This is a full size mattress, so what I did is I used our camping pads (we NEVER go camping) and foam from the futon for filler and then our old memory foam mattress pad. The mattress pad cover is queen size, so it managed to fit the whole kit and caboodle in there. Sounds weird, but seriously, it is soo comfortable with just the right amount of support. It faces the front of the house, so the afternoon sun shines on it and makes for a perfect cat nap in the sun on a cold day. :) Not that I do that.... The mirror was a steal for $10 at family dollar.

Seriously, who doesn't love a good IKEA shelf? They make the perfect room divider!

The wall of frame. (lame name, had to say it...) What else to do with all those old frames? They serve as inspiration of things that need to be filled.

This is the boys' work station. They love it, and they think its the coolest thing that they got their own work lamps. I have no idea what is up with Thurston, but yes, his shirt is on backwards, and I love him. :)

This is a picture of Aleah eating chalk

view from the other side...

My wall of things I put up

If you knew me as Rubberlady back in the day, then you would remember these babies. They served me well, but they were old, not in working condition and about 20 years past their prime. I felt they deserved a place of honor. I may not be able to fight like I used to, but I've decided that I'm not done either. ;)

I found this little gem in a file with old pictures I was going through. We had this done on our honeymoon when we were in Florence. I always loved the shark...

AKASHA

2011-02-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well,
She did it! Heather is now published and her book is now available for purchase!
There are 2 options:
1) You can purchase the e-book edition here: http://www.amazon.com/Akasha-ebook/dp/B004OEIVJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1298646810&sr=1-1

It's .99 cents and you don't have to have a kindle to read it. You can download the kindle app which is free to your PC, Mac, iphone, ipad, itouch, blackberry and android devices.

option 2: But if you still would rather read a physical copy you can purchase the paperback here: http://www.amazon.com/Akasha-Heather-Tregaskes/dp/1456579932/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298647236&sr=1-2    this copy is $7.

If you haven't checked it out, HERE is her blog:
and HERE is the website to the book that has some back ground info etc.
If you do read it, she would love some feedback!
I do have to put a shout out that I did the cover. woot woot. This means that I have some work that is published!
   I read the first edition and really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the final product, you know you wanna look! ;)

Her Choice

2011-02-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Our family has a tradition, that on the first birthday, you present 3 things and let the child choose which one they like the best. You put out a book, an apple and a coin (they represent wisdom, health and wealth). Its a fun thing to do, and a fun tradition to continue. Aleah was tired at the end of the night so she was a little cranky when we started but once she saw the goods she was fine. She headed straight for the book and didn't even look at the other things (until later). She nibbled on the apple later, but I don't think she even fussed with the shiny coin. She's my little book worm. She wasn't paying any attention to the other gifts, and when Preston moved the book behind him so she would open them, she crawled OVER them and around Preston to get her book back. Love her!

Baby Girl's Festivities

2011-02-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

* as a disclaimer I did the 'upgraded' version of blogger and it seems to have misplaced my spell check button. That and the pics upload a little differently, so they are all out of order. As the great Phil and Lem from better off Ted once said ya gotta 'deal with it!'

Forgive the repeat, I know I posted most of these on Facebook, but not everyone who reads my blog is on there (come on Paul, you know you wanna conform) ;).
We had fun with Aleah and her birthday. Her actually birthday was spent with just us. When I picked out the birthday Tiara, Aleah wore it in the store and refused to take it off. Wasn't happy for the 2 seconds the cashier scanned it. This coming from the girl who refuses to wear bows in her hair and rips out her pigtails when the pictures are over (sound familiar Mom? :)
She's worn it quite a bit lately and refers to it as her 'piheee" (pretty). We had a small get together for her with our usual party crowd yesterday. She's decided to come down with a cold so she was a little on the cranky side, but still managed to be absolutely adorable. We seriously just love this little girl so much! The boys are so good with her and she just loves them back. It's crazy having a daughter who looks and act like you. Sorry world!
Here she is with her favorite pet. He's getting more patient with her.

Here she is with her new party dress and her pretty bracelet that she won't break when she tries to eat it... sorry, my girl doesn't do the fancy little bead bracelets. She has broken 3 and tried to eat I don't know how many! :)

Enjoying her Birthday breakfast

This one wasn't taken on her birthday, and the pictures uploaded in a wierd order and I don't want to rearrange them. She fell asleep while waiting for her lunch. aaaahhhh...

Her new table and tea set (yes, Mommy is going to have a lot of fun with this too!)

snuggling and sucking on her bankies

trying to pick Mommy's nose (one of her favorite things to do).

peek-a-boo in the curtains. Seriously LOVE the shadow of the pig tails!

Baby girl and her pihee tiara.

Headed to the tubby after eating the cake

Here she is enjoying the cake

waiting for the cake (it's like I'm reversing time here...)

Aleah and her guest of Honor. No we did not plant him, he likes to sit at the table. funny guy, that Jazz.

Here is her cake. I tried to make it look like Jazz-a-mows. She loved it!

I did cake pops this year. Super delicious. I tried a new chocolate cake
recipe from scratch and used nutella instead of icing to bind it and dipped it in a dark chocolate. oh yeah.

And we're back to the pretty dress, but this time it has wings!

Enjoying her table and a pot of tea.

The first of many tea parties with mommy.

Happy Birthday Aleah!!

2011-02-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

It really does not feel to me that a year has gone by. I think I am still trying to catch my breath from the pregnancy, but as we can see, Baby girl is now One year old!! She is the sweetest thing and I seriously could not
have a daughter more perfect for me (or for our family). She has just the right amount of spunk and sweetness.
She often can be found in a pile of books flippin through each one, and if there are animals on the page you can guarantee she will be meowing or barking at them. She loves our cat Jazz, esp when her door isn't shut and he wakes her up. Nothing like hearing her giggle and meow at him and then find him in the crib with her. She loves Sesame St and Pingu, Yogurt and chocolate. She's very much a Mommy's girl, but LOVES when Daddy comes home. Her brothers make her laugh as she does them. We are so grateful to have her in our family and love her more and more each day.
There are birthday pics of her, but my camera is downstairs and I am upstairs so I will leave that for another post, because I am that lazy!
We LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!!!!!

For Only 7 cents a day...

2011-02-03T11:46:00.002-07:00

This my friends, is what you get when Aleah takes a nap after pulling out her pig tails, and then consuming a chocolate chip cookie. So funny! Just to show she doesn't always look hard up for cash, here she is with playing Xbox with Thurston :)

Birthday Bashes

2011-01-27T20:35:00.007-07:00

My children like to celebrate the birthdays of certain items they own. This is Wadie, Thurston's blanket. I know his birthday because he was given to me the day before Joseph was born. This is us singing to him. ;) For Joseph's birthday we surprised him at school. While the kids were at recess, we set up their tables and got the goods out. The reaction of Joseph (as well as all the other kids) was great. They sang to him and did a cool little thing for him during their rug time. I have a video of it that I will have post at another time. I had to bring a "healthy" snack and some how pudding qualified for that, so they got pudding, graham crackers and milk. quick pic of the Birthday boy and his table. Blowing out the candles Here's this years Optimus Prime cake. I totally cheated this year and just picked up an OP cake pan and bought the tubes of frosting. Not super impressive, but I still think it looks pretty sweet, and he loved it. Aleah the stinker being flippin cute Instead of a party, Joseph had a sleep over, which was WAAAYYY easier for us! It was impossible to get a pic of him opening his gifts staying still! This is what they left behind after they ate. Gotta love boys! One of the boys gave JoJo a finger painting set and they all got in on the action. gotta lick the candles... They watched The Karate Kid with popcorn. I impressed them with my jump kicks, but my poor body didn't like that. They boys were all very well behaved and I think they had a lot of fun, and I think sleep overs are the way to go now.

Aleah Meowing

2011-01-21T21:40:00.002-07:00

Here's a fun video of baby girl doing her animal noises. I love how wide she opens her mouth when she meows. She has her entourage of stuffed animals (2 cats, a dog and a mouse)that she keeps in her crib at nap time and its so fun to listen to her through the door meowing and "ruffing" at them. I so love her!

Happy Birthday to Joseph!!

2011-01-18T20:30:00.003-07:00

I can't believe that it is that time of year again, the only thing I like about the month of January- It's Joseph's Birthday! Ok, so it technically it's tomorrow, but I imagine who ever reads this won't read it until tomorrow (19th). The little stinker definitely has a strong personality and likes to do his own thing. This is good and bad, but in the end he really is a sweetheart. He's got the quick wit of his father and a firey temper like his Mama. So that's fun. But he's the life of the party and loves to bring an extra quarter to popcorn day at school so he can buy his friend a bag of popcorn. :) We got out of doing a party this year and offered him cash instead. He called it his "money party" and got to pick out toys online and has been patiently waiting for his package to arrive in the mail. We will celebrate tomorrow by going ice skating as a family, and he is allowed a couple friends over on Friday for a sleep over. This should be fun! We love you JoJo and all the fun times you bring us! You mean more to us than you could ever know.

Random Days of Happiness

2011-01-17T13:32:00.003-07:00

I received a free calendar in the mail that has all the random Holidays listed. I decided it would be fun to celebrate some of these (all would be a little too exausting for my taste.) We started with last Friday, which was dress up your pet day. So we did. Don't know what I am doing here... This is for his dignity We are looking forward to these little things. Sunday was national do nothing day, so thats pretty much what we did. I am really looking forward to next Sunday, which is national eat a pie day and future ones such: national Eclair day, National donut day (I'm seeing a trend here). I'm sure I'll blog about some of our experiences, it's the little joys that keep us going, right? On another thought, I have neglected my childrens hair and it has gotten way out of control. They have apts tonight to get their hair cut, but I had to share this! I send a text of his hair this morning to some people because JoJo's hair looked just like my sister Julies Senior portrait hair from 1989. This one is more like the 1984 family picture version where she was wearing some kind of denim- corderoy dress thingy. Sorry to keep pointing you out Julie, but you have to admit that you had some fabulous 80's hair!

Dino dig and more cat drug problems

2011-01-05T15:57:00.004-07:00

The boys excavating. Joseph was digging for Dino bones, which ended up being a Brontosaurus, and Thurston dug out "castle" artifacts. Super messy, but they had fun and it kept them busy. I was going out (my last excursion prior to getting sick) and had given some of Jazz's Christmas catnip to him. He was already in the "laying on the floor and staring into space" stage and warned Pres that he had had some catnip. Well, silly me didn't put it up and left the bad on the counter. Crazy cat got into it and went crazy. He was running around the house in spurts and then would stop and roll around. I think at one point he was passed out in the sink. I laugh at his misfortunes. Apparently it can be a hallucinogen, poor guy. When I got home Preston said that he had just shut the pantry door because jazz had spilt it everywhere (he had baby girl at the time.). So yeah, I opened the door to see this, he's got problems. Just a pic of baby girl being adorable in her pigtails.

2011-01-03T13:44:00.002-07:00

I am feeling much better today both physically and emotionally, and wanted to tell the world about my new love. Bissy: She was my gift from Preston this year and I fell in love right away. I HATE sweeping and mopping my floor. Its sad really, how little I involved myself in this task. That is, until now. My little bissy is a vacuum and steam mop all in one. That's right, I run the thing over my floor and is sucks up all the crap and steams and wipes up behind it. Those pesky dried things on the floor I used to scrape off with a pampered chef scraper get zapped by the steam and melt away. There are no cleaners involved to buy so woohoo! So now ALL my hard floors are clean because it takes less time to do all of them with this baby than it did the old way. With a combination of watching Kohls sales with online 30% and free shipping it ended up being a really good deal. That is all.

2011-01-01T16:14:00.002-07:00

If our Christmas was like heaven then our New Years was like hell. Seriously. Here is a festive New Years Hat: Now here is my New Years Hat... That, my friends is a stool sample kit hat. Woohoo!! This is where I may as well warn you that **contents may be graphic, proceed at your own risk, want, desire, curiosity etc** Lets rewind the time to the beginning of December when Nursing started to suck (ha). Aleahs teeth, milk blisters etc = not fun. The day of the ward adult Christmas dinner I had spent all day decorating and helping Pres cook, whilst I hurt. The next day I started feeling nasty (this was the day of the North Pole express). On the way home I felt aweful and had 2 plugged milk ducts. I awoke the next morning to mastitis. After 4 hours of waiting for the nurse to call back and then the DR, I was chewed out by the DR for missing her phone call after waiting for 4 hours...she perscribed me antibiotics. Next day I was worse, body shakes, fever and now both breasts infected and went on a different antibiotic. Now, this is the point where I could go back in time and jump through the air in slow motion yelling "Noooooooooo!" in a freakishly low slow voice knocking the new antibiotic out of my hand. Clindamycin is now my mortal enemy. Did it clear up my raging case of mastitis? Yes. Was it worth it? No. I am seriously angry that no one warned me of just how aweful this drug is. Luckily I read the 2 page warning and was aware of what I should look out for. I had minor stomach issues but managed the treatment well. I went off the meds on wed before Christmas and Thurs broke out in a rash on my chest, breasts and neck and slightly on my face. Luckily this cleared up so Christmas was bearable. Fast forward one week. Wednesday I felt crappy... we had dinner at a friends house so I took some IBuprofrin and headed over. By the end of dinner and movie I was shaking and achy. By the time we got home I was shaking uncontrollably again and as I tried to carry my water upstairs my shaky hands was spilling water everywhere. I laughed and then cried. This is when the dreaded diarrhea started. I spent the night curled in a ball shivering and sh.... ing. Fun. In my medical history, it seems the worst is suspected, but in the end I am sent home packing told to take some pills and call them if I have any questions. So when Pres kept pushing me to go in I was annoyed, but gave in. I was upfront about my taking Clindamycin and they immediately sent me home with the above kit. I was told not to take anything to stop my symptoms because if it was C. Difficile it could make it worse and to pretty much stick with chicken broth and bananas. Nothing like catching your crap and then scooping it in tubes with little spoons (don't say I didn't warn you...). This time is different from the typical montezuma's revenge cases, thats what had me worried. They say that nurses can often diagnose someone with C Diff by the look and smell because it is so different. To my great happiness I tested positive and am now on another antibiotic (ironic enough) for the next 2 weeks. I was told to eat as normal a diet as possible but that was about it. No warning of how this may be a reoccuring thing in my life, that some people never get cured, that this is the most serious case of bacterial infection in your large intestine, that in some cases is fatal to you or your intestines, that the spores can only be killed by cleaner with bleach, and how certain foods can hurt or help you. ugh. So this is where I am at. I am feeling better in terms of the flu symptoms have passed and I can eat a little bit. Its more like every hour or 2 instead of every 20 minutes, so thats "good". The meds take 3-4 days to kick in and ave healing time is 10-14 days. With that being said I would like to list the good things about this experience: I have lost 4 pounds in 2 days, I will not be able to consume sugar/ soda for a long time, I will eat more healthy foods. I went in w/ in 24 hours while the ave person gets hospitalized after a week of suffering. There are people who get this so bad that they loose their large intestine and galbladder or die!! I've found some support groups that freak me out, but other who have successfully battle this thing and have 'won'. My diet will change dramatically and will have to keep it for a while. No dairy, no sugar and no happiness!! Although almond chocolate silk is ok. Greek yogurt is my new friend and together we will battle these little buggars residing in the long dark places. I may or may not say "take that you little @$%^@*&^$%&*!!!" when I take my meds. It makes me feel a little better inside. Its not that contageous and to take precausions I have my own bathroom right now. So don't think my house is a sespool of evil bacteria, that's just my butt. ;) So our New Years wasn't the fun snack/ game fest I imagined so I thought it went horrible, but at the end of the night, Joseph (Thurston passed out at 11:30) was snuggled on the couch with us and said it was the best night ever. Pres said he almost teared up because we were so stressed about what we didn't do, we failed to focus on what we did do : watch Despicable Me, the boys got to stay up late and build Bionicles. To them, that was awesome. :) To here's to the new year! And if you are curious, and so you know I'm not over reacting, I dare you to google C. Difficile. And please read the info on all meds before you take them!

Oh yeah, it Christmas time...

2010-12-27T13:31:00.009-07:00

In the 9 Christmases that Preston and I have been together, there have 2 with just our little family. The first one was when we first moved up here. Thurston was 4 months, Joseph was almost 2 and we knew no one. Needless to say it wasn't our best Christmas. This year, however, was completely different. Every year we load up and head to Salt Lake, but this year we decided to finally have our own Christmas at home. Don't get me wrong, we love and missed our families, but at the same time it was seriously so nice to do our own thing at our own pace for once. We declared it a pajama-fest on Thursday after I got home from kickboxing and stayed in them until...(ok, to be honest it is Monday afternoon and I am still in pj's, but I did change them from time to time...). Preston and I started our Lord of The Rings Marathon on Thursday (we do this every year because we are nerds) and Friday (Christmas Eve) we went to visit with his brother and family out in Middleton and then came home and ate dinner. The boys didn't want jammies, so we got them Transformer snuggies. Seriously, they are so retarded, but functional and funny. They were actually excited about them. Christmas Eve night was rough, teething Aleah and Joseph not falling asleep. They each had their own little tree on their dressers and Santa wanted to leave a danish and hot chocolate under them, but a certain little boy kept trying to "catch Santa" and wouldn't fall asleep! Pres had to set the alarm for 3am to finish up. In the end it all worked out and the kids had so much fun. I seriously love the age that they are at and we had such a fun Christmas. I hope all (who ever reads this thing) did too! Here are some pics of our adventures: Making cookies for Santa, seriously, when did they become the same size? We may have gotten into a flour fight.... Not sure why the lean, but its cute Joseph rearranged the nativity, he had Mary riding in on a camel and put baby Jesus with the angel because he wasn't born yet. ;) Baby girl's first Christmas!! Christmas Eve dinner. This was the best shot I got, the boys kept moving... Aleah's First Present... Haha, Snuggies :) I so love these monkeys! Love the choke hold Joseph has on Thurston. Opening Presents and enjoying the morning Joseph Enjoying the breakfast Santa brought him I need a cleaning Elf ahh, more Bionicles to vacuum up and try to keep Aleah away from... Nana Ronda gave her her bib :) Aleah and her inflatable duck bath. She loves this thing! Thurston and his sweet mix-master set. This bad boy had a turn table and all kinds of gadgets. He can record on his 'i-pod' and take it around with his own head phones. Seriously, this thing is awesome and I kept playing with it. Nana Ronda and Gpa Sonney gave the kiddos professional Chef shirts and hats with baking mix and a spoon. So cute! This is Chef Thurston, I dare you not to laugh at that. On Christmas Eve, I asked the boys what their faces would look like when they saw their presents. They then demonstrated and Joseph struck a pose and said that he would use his whole body and I quote "this is my Butt phrase that I will have" seriously, sooo funny! This was him demonstrating his 'butt phrase'. This is a spawn of Preston and I, so, yeah. Chef Joseph

Nerd Christmas Party and sweets

2010-12-23T12:54:00.006-07:00

I have to say that of all the ones we went to/ were in charge of, these ones are always my favorite. Could be that they are always laid back and have good food, but the gifts are always excellent. Here are the prizes: Rich and Angie got a decorate your own flask kit and a TMNT lunch pail Bill and Kim, he got our game survival kit (Starcraft dorks). It included a hydration bladder with MT Dew Live wire, a pack of depends and a snack that is twizler ropes tied together with pretzels tied in along the way for one continuous snack. :) She got a mistletoe hat and a ladies of starwars deck of cards... and I know what you're thinking because we were all surprised to see more than 2 women in starwars :) ChiMing got a partially used canister of KoolAid and a mace kit. Wendy got Bieber. Poor gal. ;) I was soo lucky to get a shake weight, funniest invention ever. Preston got a set of bottle tops that turn your can of soda into a bottle = awesome. As great minds think alike, Jason too got a game kit. Same Mt Dew, only his came with a strategy notebook and a wrist brace. haha. This is Thurston rockin out to Justin Bieber. Here are some things I made. For the Vegas bowl game (UTAH vs BSU), our friends decided to have a cake-off. This was our attack against BSU, we thought it was funny! I didn't make these, but they are from friends and family and this is what pushed me back into Kickboxing. :) Aleah was my taste tester for the mousse I made. She loved it! I made these for a RS party and they were so good, I decided to make them and give them out this year, as well as for the party. I also made a Berry mousse version. I made a devils food cake (from scratch) and topped with Ganache and one I used chocolate mousse and the other berry mousse. Holy heaven they were good!!!

North Pole Express

2010-12-23T12:18:00.005-07:00

Ever since I found out they did this last year I have wanted to take the kids! The Thunder Mountain Rail line does the North Pole Express every year. We waited too long to buy the tickets for the day time and ended up going on the night train. The down side is there was no view, but the upside is that Santa rides the train with you at night ( and Mrs Claus). The kids had a blast and Santa went up and down talking to each of the kids. When we arrived at the North Pole the kids got to take pics with the big man in his sleigh and have milk and cookies. Overall it was fun, cold and the kids loved it. If we do it again next year, I will plan on another time when the other carts are not full of adult Christmas parties. It's not the same when you get off the train to see santa and you have a bunch of drunk adults getting off and acting like children. Kinda ruined the mood. But other than that it was fun and the kids were totally convinced. :) Aleah played her part well Thurston telling Santa what he wanted JoJo doing the same Santa had the kids come in the back and told them fun Christmas stories. He was a good Santa, and I was not aware that Santa had a Boston accent. :) In Santas Sleigh. Thurston purposley looks away from the camera when his picture is taken. Cute, but annoying. Family Pic at the North Pole Aleah and her cookie She kept herself entertained with a paintbrush and a foggy window for quite some time. The had a heated open cart that was kinda fun, but still cold!

Fast Forward Thru December

2010-12-23T11:51:00.006-07:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone and so has December. We spent Thanksgiving in Salt Lake. It was ok, not terrible but not fantastic. There was a big storm the night before so it took us over 7 hours to get to Prestons parents house (normally 4.5 hours). Not only were we dealing with crappy conditions outside, but inside as well. Thurston decided to catch a case of the squirts and we were stopping every 20 or so miles for him to go to the bathroom. So that was fun. With the snow came excellent sledding conditions, so we headed out with "Grumpa" Ralph. The kids had a blast and I took Aleah down a couple times and she loved it... we think. She kept the same facial expression the whole time. ;) Dinner was good, but came waaay too late. With a mixture of the Turkey not being done and waiting for everyone to get there, we FINALLY ate dinner at 8PM!!! I was a little cranky, esp because I didn't get pie until 9:30pm. We did get to catch up with our friend Graziano, who was in from Italy. He watched the UTAH vs BYU game with us and then he had to go. Sad to only spend a few hours with him, but glad to see him. We were snowed in and left Monday morning. Since then it has been work parties, Ward and RS party(s)... in which one I must mention Preston prepared and cooked the meat and pasta. Kid parties at school, a nasty bout of Mastitis, friend parties and football bowl games. So here we are, December 23rd and nothing on the calendar except Christmas. I am so excited to be in pajamas for the next 3 days and spend time with just our little family. No calls for last minute trips to SLC this year. We are excited to finally get a Christmas with just us. Baby Girl's First Thanksgiving The kids had a blast at their table Sleddding... Preston digging us out Aleah and Grandpa We had our big storm shortly after we returned home. Several inches. The kids had a lot of fun, and I had a ton of fun digging out the driveway. I think Christmas and Thanksgiving switched weather on us!

Livingroom Fort

2010-11-19T20:49:00.002-07:00

Last night I hosted a pie making night for the RS ladies. I had a ton of chairs out and of course today they are still there. We decided that when there are that many chairs around, a fort must be built. And that is just what we did! My only worries are for Thurston... Joseph ate something and has been one stinky little boy today. I'm thinking the air quality in that tent won't be so great. ;)

Pilgrims, Indians and George

2010-11-19T20:27:00.006-07:00

Today Joseph's class had their Thanksgiving Feast and I was lucky enough to go and help out. His class dressed as the Pilgrims and the other Kindergarten class came as the Indians and they were all so adorable. The rest of the afternoon we did crafts... so for 2 hours I helped 23 5 yr olds make pilgrims out of spoons (there were 4 rotations). I have a lot of respect to the teachers who do this everyday, I came home and was exhausted. On came the sweats and me and the boys cuddled the rest of the afternoon with some popcorn cookies and milk (spiked with eggnog...) and a movie (that may or may not have been a Christmas movie). Great day! Where's JoJo?! Look at the bookcase on the right, the yellow and red buckle on the hat is him. He's so cute Pretty good spread LOVE this kiddo!! On a P.S. note, Curious George was at out Library this week! There was no way we would miss him!

New Livingroom

2010-11-15T19:17:00.007-07:00

The time had come. I was tired of the yellow. Now that it is gone, I have to say I do not miss it at all. I liked the color in the direct sunlight when it was nice and warm, but at night it was a different story. The energy efficient bulbs turned my butter yellow walls into a florescent yellow nightmare and I found myself apologizing and defending myself when company was over during the evening. I'm a planner and had things down to the accessories and had been saving away for the day I could change things out, then one day Preston calls me and tells me he got an unexpected bonus = woohoo!! So for our anniversary weekend, we gutted the van leaving one seat for Aleah, dropped the boys off at the cousins and headed to IKEA. I'm not gonna lie to you, it was awesome. I absolutely LOVE how everything turned out! I feel that it represents me much better now. The dining table is a slight upgrade from the folding chairs, but only slightly. ;) Here's a shot of what it looked like before. You just have to look past the naked little boy covered in sharpie. The boys got in on the painting action Tada! This is the Dining area (duh) I love love love this table! It was only $299 at IKEA. Love that store. Not a good shot of the light, but I love this chandelier... super cheap at IKEA as well. That lamp was yet another great steel at IKEA, it beckoned me. Next to the table, this is my favorite. I got it at Kohls with my Kohls cash, so It was free... (besides the $4 in shipping) For some new art work, I gave the kids some canvases and let them have at it. JoJo's is the top, Thurston the middle and Aleahs is the bottom one. I think they turned out so cute and perfect for the space. This is the new painting I did, I love it too. So that's it, I'm happy. What happens now? Well, the post its that saved the places I wanted in the IKEA catalogue have been taken out to make room for the art/ guest room. It's all measured out and designed. Now I just need the $$ and it is so on!

Its always about the cake

2010-11-15T09:19:00.003-07:00

I should be exercising right now, but keep coming up with excuses why not to. Like posting a blog about this cake I saw and thought was hilarious. I really want to make this for someone, too great.

Anywhere but there....

2010-11-11T21:35:00.002-07:00

On nights that are not school nights, the boys take every opportunity to sleep anywhere but their beds. (They get that from their Dad. Where most couples send the husband to the couch, I was fighting to get mine into bed... that sounds bad, but it was because he spent all of high school sleeping in the living room.) They absolutely LOVE sleeping downstairs. Its usually just fine with us, we leave the stove light on and they crash watching cartoons or a movie. On very rare occasions, we will surrender the upstairs living room to them, but that is rare, because we are squatters there. Tonight they are sharing the guest bed in the art room... which is funny because it used to be their room. I think its fun and childhood is a time to enjoy things like this. We found their tents a couple weeks ago and they slept in them for a couple nights. These pics crack me up.

9 Months!!

2010-11-10T15:19:00.003-07:00

I think it is just crazy that baby girl is now 9 months old! She is so crazy and full of life and there couldn't be a more perfect fit for our family. She is the perfect finale to our little family.:) Right now she is crawling super fast, climbing onto everything (she even got onto the couch the other day- yikes). Pulls down anything in her reach. Her favorite activities include: pulling out everything in her drawer in 2 seconds flat when it is left open, throwing things from her high chair, stalking Jazz, playing with her brothers, peek-a-boo and waking up an hour after you put her to bed and staying up to party until midnight. She has her 4 front teeth and knows how to use them. She is starting to take a bottle :). Her words include "momomomomom, adadadadada, kieeeee (kitty) aheee(blankie)and the occasional abubububub and spittle. I just love her! We always do the "how big is leahs? SOOOO BIIIG!" and she has started putting her arms up, but on this day she just did her head and it was so stinkin cute!! And just incase you were wondering who she looked like, here is a picture of me around that same age. Only difference is that she doesn't have the luxury of being raised in the 80's with Golden shag and brown plaid. Tough break. ;)

after thoughts...

2010-11-09T21:42:00.005-07:00

I forgot to add these to the pot. We went back to Linder Farms as a family and the boys got to do some climbing. They did really well, and got pretty far up. Thurston was a pro until he stopped to think about what he was doing, and then got a little freaked out. We had talk him down, but he did very well. It was fun, and the mini doughnuts there are amazing.

The Sweater....shirt.

2010-11-09T21:27:00.003-07:00

This is the one I was telling you about Amber..... My dear, sweet, amazing Husband has a favorite sweater. Once the weather turns chilly, he fall back to this thing. I hate it. I absolutely abhor it, and the season is upon us once again and it will be making its way to the top of the rotation. Oh help. His defense is that he loves it because it is super comfortable and functional and that hey, its a Ralph Lauren that I believe was purchased at a Nordstrom. Keep in mind that it was purchased closer to the Seinfeld era than modern times. I try to hide it deep into his closet, but he finds it. I've been tempted to throw it out, but being the loving wife I am, I know that would be mean. I just wanted to explore why it bothers me as much as it does. Lets begin: We will overlook the faded navy blue because that's what happens when you've had and worn something for 15+ years. My problem is that it seems to have an identity crisis. You start with a plain sweat shirt. check. K- now add a faux denim collar. check. now for fun, lets add buttons. check. whats that? Oh, you want to add a pouch in the front? GREAT idea!! But I REALLY think there should be a zipper, lets put one over the left breast, sweet, yes! NOW for the best part, lets add denim elbow patches for a sophisticated touch and VOILA! This is what you get: I love you Preston.

Halloween

2010-11-09T20:58:00.006-07:00

We had ourselves a fancy good time. Actual Halloween we had family over for our Chile and pumpkin pie fest. Low key, but nice! Headed to Trunk or Treat Joseph was a pro at handing out the candy My little witch!! Seriously the sweetest picture! Carving Pumpkins! The final products Now I remember why I usually TAKE the pictures, as to avoid nice shots of me like this.

Thurston's first Field Trip

2010-10-26T09:59:00.006-06:00

Thurston's Preschool went to Linder Farms this year, and he had a total blast! He LOVED the hayride and corn pit. He hated the hay maze, didn't understand why it kept dead ending. ;) Here he is with his cute buddy Rachael (I think they are in just about every photo together) :) Enjoying the Hayride He got to pick a corn ear and feed it to the pony! He got the hang of the maze after a couple minutes What kid doesn't enjoy a nice over sized tire to play in? Corn pit. I swear I was finding corn kernels for a week.

Air mattress monster

2010-10-26T09:46:00.002-06:00

In May 2009, we spent Memorial day in SLC with our friends. We stayed at Preston's parents house and the boys took the faulty air mattress. This picture was taken the next morning. Good luck in deciphering who's limbs belong to who. It was hilarious! I had forgotten this picture existed until they emailed it to me a few weeks ago. Enjoy.

Birthday and little Pumpkins

2010-10-19T21:39:00.004-06:00

When you have little kids and you pass by a bin of little pumpkin's and the little kids say "Awwwe, look at the little pumpkins! Can we get them?" ...you get them. You get them because they ARE cute, and they are 3/ $1. So we made a night of it and decorated them. JoJo looks a little drunk, and Aleah's look cracks me up here. The final products: Joseph's, Preston's, Aleah's (she had a 'little' help), mine and Thurston's. Thurston's is my FAVORITE! It looks just like the drawings of his people. Soo cute! Here is another shot. Note the rock that made it into the picture. Cracks me up!! It was also Preston's Birthday the next night. We decorated upstairs and waited for Daddy to come home. The boys stood by the windows waiting. When he came in, they pretended to fight and I pretended to yell and yelled at Preston to come and help me. Not that this scenario ever really happens... .... we thought we would see if this ever happens if Preston would come and help. ;) Like clockwork, he came up the stairs and we yelled surprise. Being the boob he is, (and ever so sweet husband/ Daddy) He really appreciated it. We ate homemade pizza and rice crispy treats (both his fave). It was fun. :)

Babies and Kitties

2010-10-03T20:14:00.003-06:00

Aleah is fascinated with our cat Jazz, and several times have had to rescue one from the other. She likes to stalk him around the room. I don't know if he's lazy or just dumb, but he will move like 3 feet at a time away from her. It's fun to watch. We got her a stuffed kitty that looks just like him and for the first day, it did not leave her hand. I thought these pictures were adorable and hilarious... she so badly wants the kitty! COME BACK!!!!!!

8 Years!!

2010-09-28T16:35:00.005-06:00

Yesterday Preston and I celebrated our 8th anniversary! We are planning a weekend getaway next week, so we decided to stay in for the night. It was actually really sweet. We set up our game table upstairs as a "restaurant" and Preston brought cheap Chinese food in. Joseph was our waiter and was absolutely adorable. In the history of our anniversaries, our celebrations have ranged from meeting each other for an hour in between work and hectic school schedules at an all you can eat pizza buffet, to dropping well over $100 for dinner at a fancy restaurant. This evening was simple, we stayed in, surrounded by our kids, and I may or may not have been breastfeeding at the table and food thrown/ spilt on the floor... it was one of my favorites because of those same things. Here is the table Fireplace courtesy YouTube on the big TV = awesome

This is why we are here

2010-09-17T14:14:00.004-06:00

I have a friend who recently miscarried, which breaks my heart. She asked if I could take and pick her daughter up from preschool while she went to the Dr.'s. This is an easy task, but her daughter is in my sons same class, and they get a long so it was a no brainer, no big deal. She was running late, so she asked if her daughter could come home with me for a few minutes, and of course a no brainer again. She offered to pay me for those few minutes and I said that was rediculous. When she came, her daughter still wanted to play, so they both stayed at my house for awhile. OK... now yesterday I spent ALL day in the kitchen making 30+ mini cakes, 4 batches of marshmallow fondant and a big double batch of buttercream frosting for the cake class I am doing tonight. Add that mess to 2 days of prior laziness and 3 kids... yeah, it was BAD. So what does my friend do? She starts CLEANING my kitchen for me. If you know me, you know that it is hard for me to accept help. I felt embarrased that 1) my kitchen looked the way it did and 2) that someone saw it and 3) someone was going to actually volunteer to help me clean it. While I really needed and appreciated the help, I couldn't help but feel guilty. Here she is, straight from the Dr's office, in pain both emotionally and physically... happily cleaning my kitchen with me. We had a good talk and I hoped it helped her feel better and she kept thanking ME, while I kept thanking HER. It was a special moment that 2 mothers shared, who were in need and it was a special experience being on the receiving and giving part at the same time. I can't help but think about how this is what we should focus on. It isn't in the grand moments and gestures that define us, but the simple quiet acts where we truely can help one another.

Kindergarten Man

2010-09-16T21:21:00.003-06:00

I know I'm a couple weeks behind here, but my little man JoJo has officially started kindergarten. He goes all day Monday, Wed and every other Friday. He's says he loves it and his teacher is really nice. The first day on his own, we had discussed and went over where to go for breakfast (they do free breakfast for all students). I was talking to another Mom (who I knew prior) as we were waiting for them to get out of class, and she told me she found him standing in the middle of the cafeteria holding a juice box in one hand and a chocolate milk in the other trying not to cry, and said he didn't know where to go. She helped him out and all was well, but it seriously breaks a mommas heart! Preston went and ate with him the next day, but now he said that he wants to eat at home because "your food tastes a lot better Mommy". True that! Thurston started preschool and is going on the same days. So I find myself running back and forth on these days, but it gets my butt up and working. Plus I get a couple hours with just baby girl, and that's really nice.